Meru, Kenya
town in Kenya

Meru is a town in Eastern Kenya just north of the Equator. It is the headquarters of Meru County, and the sixth largest urban area in Kenya. The urban centre had a population of 291,191 residents in the 2019 census.
Overview
The town is located at 0.047035 degrees north and 37.649803 degrees east, on the northeast slopes of Mount Kenya. The Kathita River passes through town. The main administrative part of town is on the north side of the Kathita River. The south side of the river is a residential area. Meru Town is about 8 km north of the equator, at an elevation of approximately 1,600 metres (5,200 ft) above the sea level, in an area of mixed forest and clearings, small towns, villages and rural farms. The town is predominantly populated by the Ameru people, a Bantu ethnic group.
History
Meru town's first District Commissioner was Edward Butler Horne.
The public source identifies “Meru, Kenya” as town in Kenya. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Meru, Kenya and town.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q934149. VIAF identifies the subject as 1413145424633286830791. Authority coordinates are 0.050, 37.650. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2019.
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This entry incorporates text from “Meru, Kenya” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.